


sunday candy

by sk4di



Series: unlikely [3]
Category: Ocean's 8 (2018)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Gen, I have a thousand notes in my phone about this verse and nothing to do with them so this happens, Kid Fic, Pre-Heist, The Rough PatchTM, debbie is so in love and I-, it's kind of cute and all
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-17
Updated: 2020-10-17
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:35:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27052762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sk4di/pseuds/sk4di
Summary: "Like parents?" Toni asked with a frown."No." Debbie took the cart and they started walking again. "It's alike but it's something else. We're your Debbie and your Lou, that's it. No one else has one of these."Toni shrugged, walking ahead of her and grabbing a bag of flour. "You for sure divorced like parents," she mumbled under her breath.(Or the one in which Debbie's parenting skills are a mess.)
Relationships: Lou Miller/Debbie Ocean
Series: unlikely [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1961611
Comments: 12
Kudos: 34





	sunday candy

**Author's Note:**

> me again. this verse again. have fun I guess.

"What is that?" Debbie asked when Toni met her outside school.

There were few things worse in life than pick up time. She was used to blend and disappear, but between all those soccer moms and occasional stay-at-home bearded dads, she was actually seen. As an outsider, since the close community had no idea who she was, but still _seen_.

"A birthday party invitation," Toni said as she looked down at the pink pastel envelope in her hands. A small frown appeared on her face.

It was Monday and Debbie had her for the entire week since Lou was out of the town in whatever job she didn't share with her anymore. Living off a big cut from the gallery, Debbie almost appreciated the distraction and excuse to step down from Claude for a while.

She propped Toni to start walking down the street with a hand on the back of her neck, only half trying to mimic some of the parents affectionate gestures, deciding it would making them seem more normal - or make her less _seen_.

"What are we getting as a gift?" Debbie asked, purposely using the word getting instead of buying.

"I'm not going," Toni stated, shoving the envelope inside the pocket of her navy blue Burberry coat.

"And why is that?" Debbie asked as they turned a corner in the direction of the supermarket.

Toni shrugged. "She is a bitch. I don't like her."

Debbie tried to hide a smirk. Good God. Thankfully they were far from the parents's ears.

"You love birthday cake," she said as they entered the supermarket and she took a shopping cart.

"I'm not that cheap," Toni said, taking off her backpack and dropping it inside the cart. She pushed up her glasses on her nose. "I won't go. I can eat cake at Eddie's."

Eddie's was the coffee shop nearby Debbie's new place that they discovered the first week after she moved in. They had the better carrot cake in New York City.

"I'm taking you anyway," Debbie decided as they walked through the alleys, picking way more food than seemed necessary for a adult woman and a child. "You need to spend time with your friends."

Toni was walking ahead of the cart, making her own addictions to it. "They are not my friends, they're my classmates," she clarified.

"God, you're difficult," Debbie whined, as they stopped by the tomatoes. She looked down at Toni. "You are a child. You are not an adult. You have to hang out with people your age sometimes. You need friends."

"You and Lou are my friends," Toni shrugged.

"We're not your friends we're your-" Debbie said but what was she going to say anyway? Those tomatoes sucked, she noticed.

Toni raised an eyebrow, eyeing her curiously.

"We're people who are in charge of keeping you alive because you have no one else," Debbie finally put together her words, picking up a few of the less worse tomatoes.

"Like parents?" Toni asked with a frown.

"No." Debbie took the cart and they started walking again. "It's alike but it's something else. We're your Debbie and your Lou, that's it. No one else has one of these."

Toni shrugged, walking ahead of her and grabbing a bag of flour. "You for sure divorced like parents," she mumbled under her breath.

Debbie pretended to not hear that, never in mood for that conversation, specially not with an nine-year-old that was determined to not be an nine-year-old.

"We have to make muffins," Toni said, dropping the bag inside their already overloaded cart.

Debbie took the bag and put it back on the first shelf she saw. "I don't bake."

"But we have to take them to school tomorrow," Toni picked the flour again, dropping it inside the cart. "It was on the newsletter. Haven't you read the class newsletter?"

The woman sighed. "Do I look like I read the class newsletter? I didn't even know that was a thing. What there is in this newsletter anyway?"

"News," Toni said, staring up at her with a corner of her mouth quirked up. "About the class."

Debbie contained a smirk. It should be illegal for a kid to be that cocky - and even if it was it's not like they were showing her the ways of the law. 

She wasn't going to bite and ask what they needed muffins for because she had no interest in whatever progressive event Toni's school was pulling up this time. Last time she heard Lou baked muffins for Imaginary Friends Tea Party and she lost her curiosity altogether with those events.

Lou was the one dealing with those things, she wanted her back. No only for that reason, of course but- 

"We'll buy them." She put the flour back on another shelf, again.

"The other moms don't buy, they bake," Toni said in a judgemental manner.

What she really meant is that Lou baked. "No one will mind. We'll be coolest ones, you'll see."

"From Eddie's?" The kid's eyes glistened.

"As you wish, kiddo," Debbie said. "Maybe we can even take those crazy strawberry jelly doughnuts we love?"

* * *

"So you got in trouble for taking doughnuts to the tea," Lou said from behind the Times, but Debbie could her the smirk in her lips without seeing it.

"Trouble is a misleading word. The kids loved it, I don't know what was the fuss about," she said, sipping her coffee.

Lou was finally back in the city four days later; sadly late for Tea With Your Favorite Book but early enough to hear about Doughnutgate while it was still hot news on Toni's class newsletter - which she apparently read avidly.

They were having their weekly brunch, because it didn't matter if they were living in different districts, of if their jobs weren't meeting anymore, or if there was a lot being unsaid, to be sitting on the same table for a couple of hours and coexisting together was necessary. So weekly brunch it was, sitting across from each other, not always talking, just a silent agreement that just being close was enough.

"Too much sugar, I heard."

"That's an excuse for people who can't get their children to behave," Debbie said with a scoff. She stole a bite from the brownie on Lou's plate "Toni does just fine with a couple of doughnuts."

Lou lowered the newspaper and made no sign of noticing her bitten brownie. "You made her highly tolerant to large portions of sugar."

"Yes."

"That's not something to be proud about," she said with a grin and hid again behind the Times. "Anyway, she told me she is going to Stasia's birthday party because you forced her to."

"Forced- I did not such a thing." Toni could be dramatic, if not a thief, she was turning her into an actress. "I just told her she needs to spend time with people her age. She spends too much time around us, we need a break." She sipped her coffee again. "What kind of name is Stasia anyway? God, those upper-middle-class hippie parents..."

"I don't think it is that terrible of a name," Lou said, face still hidden.

"I do," Debbie said, chewing on her eggs. "What's wrong with names that actually are names? The good old Wendys and Julies and Sophies or whatever."

Lou set her newspaper on the table again, finally. "If I got to choose Toni's name you can bet it would be far from those." She picked up her brownie, ignoring the missing bite and ate it. "What's the fun on putting one more Emma in the world?" She asked rhetorically when she finished chewing, as if showing off her self control to Debbie. "It sets the kid up for an unoriginal existence."

Debbie raised an eyebrow. Her eyes ran from Lou's platinum blonde hair to the exquisite rings on her fingers. "Well, Louisa, I think your logic is flawed."

Lou rolled her eyes and advertised her gaze. "What would you name her? If it had been your choice."

Debbie took another forkful of her eggs. "I don't dream of naming babies. Antonia is fine, anyway. It does the job."

"Antonia is fine. And Toni fits just well," Lou agreed. "You never thought about it, really? Not even as a little girl?"

"No. I was obsessed with medieval art, I told you that. It was the only dream I had."

Lou couldn't hide her amused smirk anymore. "Just name a baby, right now."

"Antonia."

"We already have that one."

"Grace."

"Not her middle name."

"Fine. Jessica."

Lou laughed. "You didn't even try."

"Lou-" Debbie dropped her fork on the plate. What was the point in this, she asked herself.

"Just think, come on."

There was a pause. Debbie leaned back on her chair and looked up, thinking. It had never occurred to her to name a human being. Why would anyway? But Lou was not dropping it and they were talking and Lou was laughing and it was so easy to pretend that everything was fine that she conceded.

"Robin," she said, finally. "A born thief."

Lou nodded with a smirk. "Boy or girl?"

"It fits well both, doesn't it?"

Lou, too, leaned back on her chair now. "Well, I could agree to that."

Debbie scoffed to hide a laugh. "Oh, now you have to agree to the name of my hypothetical unwanted baby?"

"Of course, or do you really think someone else in this world would accept to father your probably psychopath child?" Lou had the most adorable of her cocky smiles on her lips.

"And to think that you almost became a doctor," Debbie said, almost fondly.

Lou diverged her gaze away, as she always did when the matter came up but still had a smirk on her lips. "I agree to Robin," she said just when Debbie thought she had ruined the moment.

"I don't care, I'm aborting this impossible child anyway." She leaned on her elbows over the table and smirked.

"Who said I'd let you carry it?" Lou glanced back at her.

"You're interested ruining that?" She motioned to Lou's breasts. "What a shame."

Lou was about to laugh. "You're unbelievable."

"This conversation is unbelievable. Toni is already quite unbelievable if we decide to be honest," Debbie said, getting back to her plate, already wishing she hadn't brought back the conversation to the kid.

They had very different ideas of what it meant to have Toni around, they were aware of that. Debbie thought as a duty, Lou had stoped thinking so so long ago that Debbie wondered if she ever really did one day. Lou was a mom, Debbie was a keeper. It didn't use to matter, they used to make it work, they balanced each other, she remembers them being actually good at it, but now it was just another point in which they couldn't agree on.

"It's true," Lou said.

"But?" Debbie raised an eyebrow, honestly curious about where she was going.

"No buts." Lou shrugged.

"I know you, you're not letting that be the whole phrase about your precious little baby." She clinked her fork against the plate. "Continue."

There was a beat before Lou spoke again. "It's unbelievable in a good way. Don't give me that look."

"What look?" Debbie asked, feigning innocence.

"That look."

Lou was feeling judged, Debbie knew. But it was out of her control now, she had gone too far. She avoided getting more into the almost arguement by focusing on her food.

"You can think whatever you want, but you just have no idea how to deal with the love you have for her and that's going to bite you in the ass someday," Lou said, voice calm and peaceful.

That went down too fast. Debbie knew no other way of keeping things from getting worse than sarcasm. "Oh, you know me so well."

"You-" Lou, too, seemed eager to take the other direction away from going down. "Okay, this conversation is over."

Debbie was glad, because if Lou hadn't decided that, she wouldn't have had the right mind to do it - Oceans don't shy away from anything even if from their doom. Good thing Lou was the decent one between them.

"She is going to Stasia's birthday. I'm dropping her myself," Debbie decided to resume the earlier conversation.

"It's Saturday," Lou said, pulling up her Times again. "It's your day, do whatever you want," her voice had a drop of irritation.

And Debbie had one more regret to her list and one more reason to confirm she was an asshole.

* * *

Stasia's birthday party was pastel pink and beige on the terrace of the old building her sculptor dad and theater actress mom bought and transformed into an edgy home with abstract paintings and rugs they bought in one of their trips to India. It was a small party, with no more than a dozen of kids and parents around.

Debbie arrived in her usual black trousers, white silky shirt and high heels attire, pulling along a grumpy Toni with her. Just convincing the kid to put on her burgundy jumper dress and white shirt underneath was a warzone.

Toni's revenge only came when Debbie realized it wasn't a drop-and-go kind of party, when the moms pushed her into a table by the corner, handing her a glass of champagne before she could really protest, curious about "Toni's other mom" that they rarely saw around, since Lou was the one running those errands. Debbie wanted to yell at the smirk the kid gave her from across the room, sitting by a table with the other kids: they were both trapped.

There was a lot of conversation about the school events, ballet practices and piano lessons, that flew over Debbie's head, while she sat quietly and feigned interest in whatever a woman called Olivia, sitting closer to her, was saying. At least the champagne was excellent. She briefly wondered who started the whole two moms narrative but decided that it was probably the moms and their need to feel edgy, to say "Harriet has a friend with two mommies in her class and it's so good to her to know that there's other types of families!"

It was barely thirty minutes into the afternoon when Toni came running to her side, hand on her throat, labored breath.

"I think I ate a shrimp," Toni said, leaning over Debbie's arm.

A flick of worry hit Debbie, she was about to get up and run to a hospital. No way Toni was dying on her watch, it would be one more thing for Lou to hold against her. And of course, the whole dying thing was terrible.

"There's no shrimps around, sweetheart," Leia, Stasia's mom, said. "Your allergy is on the newsletter of the classroom."

Debbie gave the kid a knowing look, feeling like laughing at her worry. Toni looked back at her with her jaw slightly clenched and took a deep breath.

"I think I just can't contain my excitement to the games," Toni smiled sweetly at the moms. "I'm sorry to worry you, Debbie."

Debbie suppressed a smirk. Toni really didn't want to be there and she was starting to feel guilty about bringing her there. "Sure, kiddo. Go have fun." 

And there she went, wandering away back to her table, in unhurried steps.

"She calls you by your name?" Olivia asked, trying to pretend she wasn't horrified.

"She does," Debbie said.

"Does she call Lou by name too?" Olivia asked.

Debbie almost laughed trying to imagine Lou interacting with that bunch that seemed to be so cozy with her. Did they share muffins recipes? She had no idea what Lou was doing those days in many aspects and that was one of them.

"No, she goes by mom with Lou," Debbie said. That fact always made her laugh, now it was a little bit painful.

"I'm sorry, I'm confused, who is the mom?" A blonde that looked like a cheaper version of Grace Kelly asked.

"That's rude," Leia interrupted. "They're both her moms, Candace."

Candace looked appalled that she was misunderstood. "I know I'm just curious about who carried because she has your eyes and-"

It was going to be an even worst evening if Debbie didn't start to lie at that very moment. She wasn't planning on it, it just became necessary - also, she was already knee deep in assumptions, what else should she do? Open Toni's life to those bimbos? No way, they had been doing goo protecting Toni's from people's pity. She briefly thought about their brunch. "Lou did but the eggs were mine."

"God, I wish men could do that," Leia said, looking honestly jealous. "We'd have our second by now."

"Oh, I'm sorry about the divorce anyway," Olivia said in a low voice, putting her hand on Debbie's arm and leaning in, as if they were good friends. "We heard from Toni."

"Did you?" Debbie almost laughed. Good God. "That's- that's new, she is not the talking type," she covered up quickly.

"It wasn't like that. She mentioned to Polly she was spending the week at Debbie's because you were going separate ways for a while," Olivia said. "She seemed very understanding."

"I hope everything is fine. If you need us to pick up Toni or to drop her at home after school one of these days, Lou and I don't live far away from each other," Candace offered. "But what happened?" she asked, giving up on hiding her curiosity

What happened? Sometimes she asked herself the same thing. Where exactly did she go wrong? What was the moment Lou decided they were on the wrong path? Could she had done differently? Could they have done differently? 

"She left for her secretary," Debbie said, bluntly.

A collective sound of gasps rose around the table.

"I thought only men did that," a quieter mom exclaimed, horrified.

"What a pig," Olivia said, repulsed. She frowned slightly. "And she is so charming I mean I totally understand the secretar-"

"Rude, Olivia," Candace reproved.

"How's Toni taking it?" Leia asked, seeming genuinely concerned, in that hippie yogi calm voice of hers.

Debbie briefly looked at Toni's direction. Her gaze was distant, on the horizon of the city while the kids made a fuss over their food and toys. 

"Toni is tough. She is just- she is strong," Debbie said, taking a break from lies. "But we agreed for her to see a therapist, just to make sure we're not missing anything," she added to soothe the moms, as if Toni would do anything but stare at a therapist if she had to see one.

"But is Lou still in the picture?" Candace asked. "Jordan's father only appears twice an year. One to pick him for one week in the summer and five days later to drop him off. He doesn't even keep him the whole week, he says Jordan is impossible."

From what Debbie heard about Jordan from Toni, his dad wasn't wrong about him - he had Debbie's sympathy.

But the question unsettled her. She resented more than she wanted, they had their issues, they had their problems, but no way she was going to let those breeders think wrongly of Lou, specially not about this.

"I'm not worried," she said, and decided to throw another truth between her lies. "Lou is- Lou is the best mom I've ever met."

* * *

Toni tried again an hour later. 

"I'm good to go," she whispered on Debbie's ear.

"The party is not over," Debbie said in a voice low enough for only the kid to hear, wrapping an arm around her and sipping the fucking good champagne.

Toni sighed, impatiently, a fist clenching on Debbie's shirtsleeve. "I don't care, I'm tired. We can make a French exit."

Debbie laughed. Either Toni was getting funnier either she was getting tipsy. "That's not a thing in a 10th birthday party. Go back to your friends."

"They're talking about Hannah Montana. I hate her."

"Go there and fake it, go mingle," she said, shooing the kid away.

It took two other attempts for them to leave. Toni not lasting in her goodbyes to her party and waiting by the door with her goodies bag and Debbie trapped between the goodbyes of the moms.

They told her to appear more often. Maybe to have brunch with them sometimes. What about a weekend in the Hamptons, just them, no kids? 

Sure, let's arrange that, was Debbie's response. She crossed the door determined to avoid them for as long as she could.

"See, it wasn't that bad," Debbie said to Toni in their way back home.

"The cake was nice," Toni said, looking out the window of the cab.

"The cake was perfect, indeed."

"Stasia is still a bitch, though," Toni mumbled.

Debbie laughed and the taxi driver gave them a disapproving look through the rear view.

"Why do you hate her so much?" Debbie asked.

Toni shrugged.

"Was she mean to you?" Debbie asked because since June Wallace became their little secret, she felt like it was her duty to check on those matters Lou was unaware of.

"No," Toni said.

"Then what is it?" Debbie asked, again.

Toni kept her gaze away, chewing the flesh from her cheek, jaw locked enough for Debbie to wonder if it was going to draw blood.

"She is too nice. She asks about what I like and if I want to play and when she asks me things I want to tell the truth," Toni said. "I can't do that."

The whole Belleville murder story fell into the past as they moved on and took Toni in. The kid knew everything she needed to know about it, they never hid anything from her, but for outsiders, it was a story they decided to not share, another aspect of their lives that was only theirs, no one else's; Toni didn't need anyone's pity.

Debbie wanted to say something, give her an advice, but decide against. She didn't have enough words. She picked up a crunch bar from Toni's gift bag and put it in her mouth.

"This is awful," she says, but chews on it again, as if chewing on the unsaid words she had for Toni.

"It's vegan," Toni said, containing a grin.

"That explains." She eats the whole thing.

Toni fumbled in the bag. She grabbed one for herself and chewed on it, laughing with her mouth full, making Debbie laugh with her. She fumbled and fumbled more until she found a couple of Twizzlers and handed it to Debbie.

The woman accepted it silently. It was in moments like those she realized how Toni was Lou's. It didn't matter what Lou said about her and Toni being the same person, she disagreed. Toni may have some of her own traits, but every single one that Debbie loved the most came from Lou. The selflessness, the adorable cockiness and the general lightness of character; they made living look easy.

The kid removed the party hat from her head and put it on Debbie, delicately arranging the elastic under her chin and smiling dorky.

Debbie was almost tipsy, in the back of a cab, missing Lou and with her guard lowered because it was just her and the one person in the world that had nothing but the purest kind of love for her.

As a teenager, maybe Toni would realize how much of a terrible person she was. Maybe she would notice all the ways Debbie failed her as a kid and resent her for the rest of her life. Maybe she would look back and pinpoint the exact point in which Debbie broke her. But for now, Toni didn't care. Toni loved her, with the characters flaws and mishaps she was too young to comprehend the extent of and all. 

So she just smiled back, sincerely, grateful for that simple little moment and her Twizzlers.

* * *

"How was your friend's party?" Lou asked as she opened the door for her.

"Stasia is not my friend," Toni said, passing straight through Lou and going into the apartment. "Bye, Deb."

"Bye, kiddo." Debbie waited until the girl disappeared. "You gotta unpack that, I don't have what it takes."

Lou looked behind her shoulder briefly and nodded. "Nice hat," she said to Debbie.

Debbie grinned and rolled her eyes. The words were on the tip of her tongue and Lou was standing right in front of her, barefoot, in jeans and a tank top. It had been a while since she saw her in that state and she missed that specific version of her - all domestic and with skin exposed so casually, showing the freckles on her shoulders and the shape of her arms.

"Would you really agree to...Robin?" She blurted out. She took a breath as Lou briefly frowned. "In another life, if we were not assholes in that one, which is unlikely - and if I changed my mind, which is unlikely too," she rushed out the words.

Lou leaned against the threshold, a cocky smirk in her lips, but curious eyes behind her bangs. "Yeah. Maybe a couple of Robins."

Debbie shook her head. "Don't go over the top but- okay, good to know." She paused, trying to decide on her next phrase. "Because you're the best in this- this caring thing. Toni is lucky that she has you. She would be dead by now if she only had me. You're- you're...good."

The cocky grin in Lou's lips grew wider and her head tilted to the side. "Did you get drunk at a kid's party?"

"Maybe there was some champagne involved. Those damn upper-middle-class hippies," Debbie cursed with a laugh. "Oh, by the way, we're getting a divorce because you fucked your secretary. Also, you carried Toni but the eggs were mine. Just updating you on the storyline."

Lou laughed, loud and merry and Debbie wanted nothing but to hold her and feel it againsy her body. "I think Candace and Olivia were too much for you to handle. Do you want to come in? I'll make you a cup of tea."

Debbie hesitated. It was such a friendly invitation but she knew Lou had regretted it the moment it left her mouth because her posture changed. It was dangerous for them. She gulped down the lump on her throat. "It wouldn't be very a good idea, the taxi is waiting."

Lou nodded vaguely. "I get it. I didn't mean in that way I-"

"It never stopped us before, though," Debbie said with a nervous laugh.

"No, it didn't." Lou laughed too.

Debbie couldn't stand that. "I'm ovulating, I can't really risk conceiving Robin tonight."

Lou laughed again, making everything better and worse at the same moment. "Right."

They stared at each other, speechless and lost for a beat. "Kiss the brat goodnight for me."

"I will," Lou nodded.

Debbie nodded back.

One day she would make things right. One day they would fix everything, find a way back to each other, mend hearts, mend trust, mend their home. That's was not the night.

Even then, Debbie leaned in and kissed her cheek. "Goodnight you."

Lou was close, closer than they have been for months now. Debbie got dizzy and it had nothing to do with the champagne. She was not in the right mind to regret her actions yet and Lou wasn't giving her any reason to.

The blonde leaned in closer and kissed her her cheek, light and chaste. "Goodnight you," she said, her voice too close to not make Debbie melt under it.

It was not exactly the way Debbie wanted to kiss her after that much time, but it made her skin tingle and heart race much worse than a heated kiss would. There was something about the fragility of the moment - a drop of water looks like an ocean when you're wandering through a desert. 

She could barely process everything when Lou disappeared, closing the door and leaving Debbie alone in the hallway, with nothing but a waiting cab and, a party hat and a swollen heart.


End file.
